I’ve always been excited by using our knowledge of how our brains work to create better marketing, advertising, and sales strategies. That led me to write Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing (Wiley, 2011) as well as my blog Neuromarketing. I always emphasize practical applications, not theory. I’m the founder of Dooley Direct, a marketing consultancy, and I co-founded College Confidential, the leading college-bound website. That business was acquired by Hobsons, a unit of UK-based DMGT, where I served as VP Digital Marketing and continue in a consulting role. I’ve spent years in direct marketing as the co-founder of a successful catalog firm, and before that directed corporate planning for a Fortune 1000 company. You can learn more about me and my speaking at RogerDooley.com. Follow me on Twitter at @rogerdooley, or on Google Plus at Roger Dooley.

Is That Water in My Budweiser?

Hot on the heels of the Maker’s Mark “watered down” bourbon fiasco (see Did Maker’s Mark Commit Brand Suicide?), there’s a new controversy brewing. This time, it’s the iconic brewer Anheuser-Busch that is being accused of watering down their product. The firm, now part of InBev, is the target of a $5 million lawsuit claiming that the alcohol content of the product is below that stated on the label due to the addition of water. Budweiser, Michelob, and other A-B brands are said to be affected by the practice.

Unlike Maker’s Mark, who initially announced they would add water to extend the quantity of bourbon they could ship, Anheuser-Busch InBev denies that there is any truth to the claims in the lawsuit, and says they comply fully with appropriate labeling laws.

Craft beer lovers may find brews like Budweiser a bit thin already, but the last thing the brand needs is for long-time Bud drinkers to get the impression that someone is adding water to their beer. As I discussed in my Maker’s Mark post, it’s not whether the customer can taste the difference. It’s all in the perception. Give average beer drinkers two identical samples of beer, tell them that the second one has been diluted with a little water (but not enough to change the flavor), and I guarantee more will “taste” the difference than not. As social scientist Dan Ariely found, even adding vinegar to beer went unnoticed – those who tasted the brew reported liking it, unless they were told about the addition. Then, they hated it.

InBev has already been accused of tinkering with the long-established recipes for its iconic brands, mostly in the name of cost reduction. They need to crush these allegations quickly and convincingly (assuming they are untrue) if they expect to avoid major damage to their brands.

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What thee consumers would really like out of InBev with the Budweiser Products would more alcohol content and less water and also a Budweiser brand hard liquor.Get with the program and the times InBev,this is America not Belgium.

Of one thing I, a homebrewer, am certain: Budweiser adds water to their beers. Brewing consists of a number of steps that introduce variance into the process results, for example, malt yields different levels of sugar from year to year and batch to batch, yet a product like Budweiser is desirable precisely for its consistency. The only way to achieve consistency is through blending of batches and where necessary, watering down to the levels of alcohol on the label. If the alcohol content is less than what’s listed on the label, the people complaining have a case but if it’s exactly on, you can pretty much expect it was blended to that level and that water was one of the ingredients.

you all should check the “beer alcohol content” sites online before acting so uppity about beers being “watered down”. flavor and alcohol content are not the same, guinness has the same alcohol content as budweiser.

It’s rather better known internationally under its German name of Budweis. A long and at some times nasty copyright dispute with American giant Anheuser-Busch has left the two local breweries unable to use the town’s name in many overseas markets.